Rollercoaster Season for Canadian Rob Friend

Posted May 29th, 2009 by Al Clark

Rob Friend: Source: CSA Rob Friend: Source: CSAThe Final week has come and gone in the German Bundesliga (the top tier football league in Germany) and off the pitch, Canadian forward Rob Friend will share a sigh of relief with his Borussia Monchengladbach teammates - including Paul Stalteri - as they finished one point ahead of Energie Cottbus who occupy the final relegation spot [Al: Though not so good for the four young Canucks at Cottbus - Straith, Smith, Porter and Cook - and Cottbus II's newest CMNT call up, Eddy Sidra]. This means that the recently promoted “Die Fohlen” will stay in the top league for another season. A 1-1 home draw with Dortmund was enough to secure the final spot above the drop zone as well as hand Rob Friend the golden boot for the team with 7 league goals. The last few months however have not been so friendly for the Canadian, as he missed the relegation battle with a season ending ankle injury.

Rob’s first taste of German top flight football came on August 17, 2008 at home to VfB Stuttgart and he continued his goal scoring prowess of a season ago by notching his first goal of the season in a 3-1 loss to Stuttgart. The next three games also proved fruitful as Friend notched 2 more to sit at 3 in four games, however M’Gladbach were sitting 1-3-0 and close to the bottom of the league. The next two months would prove to be painful for Rob as he went goalless in 8 straight league games and the losses began to pile up and prepare M’Gladbach for a season long relegation battle. The team fired manager Jos Luhukay and replaced him with technical sporting director Christian Ziege, to try and turn the tide of the sinking ship.

For Friend successive goals followed the drought in helping salvage a 2-2 home draw with powerhouse Bayern Munich, however were not enough to overcome a 3-1 defeat away to Champions League qualifiers Schalke ’04. And again the goalless streak came in. Three months long this time (including the one month winter break) and seven games of not finding the back of the net provided M’Gladbach with only 4 points of a possible 21 and increase their chances of relegation back to the German Second Division. Reinforcements of Canadian Teammate Paul Stalteri, and Belgian Logan Bailly were brought in the winter transfer window to try and spark Die Fohlen back into the Bundesliga safety zone.

And then something magical happened, Friend notched another two goals in two successive wins at home to Hamburg and away at Cologne to make it the first time this season they had successive wins and strung together 3 in four games. This infusion of points gave M’Gladbach a fighting chance for survival. This however would have to be without the services of the Canadian tower, as he picked up a heal injury in training before a pivotal April 5th clash against relegation battlers Karlsruhe. This injury required minor surgery and would ultimately cost the Canuck the rest of his season and force M’Gladbach to continue the battle without the services of its leading scorer for the past two seasons.

For Die Fohlen, it was a battle right to the finish. Poor results left them in a very deep hole: a draw against then bottom club Karlsruhe, a late loss to Wolfsburg and a big loss in Frankfurt left them in the precarious relegation playoff spot (16th place) with only six games to go. Another depressing draw against another relegation struggler Arminia Bielefeld and an expected loss to Bayern could have been the end but the teams behind them struggled to gain ground. Then with just four games to go, an improbable last minute victory against Schalke and a do-or-die win in Cottbus put ‘Gladbach into safety in 15th place, just ahead of Arminia Bielefeld on goal difference. They managed to survive, despite a 5-0 thrashing by Bayer Leverkusen on the 2nd last weekend, with a 1-1 draw on the final day of the season against Borussia Dortmund. The seven points garnered in the final four games gave the Canadian reason to be happy as the lads survived the season finishing in 15th place and securing Bundesliga soccer would be played in front of the passionate fans of Borussia-Park throughout the 2009-10 season.

For Rob Friend, his first Bundesliga season will be remembered as quite a rollercoaster with many goal scoring peaks and valleys, however, he should hold his head high as he lead the team in scoring while missing the later part of the season and ultimately contributed to the initial points needed to secure a place in the German top division for next season.

Seven jeans are about sexy,

On March 12th, 2010 jeans (not verified) says:

Seven jeans are about sexy, adventurous, trendsetting apparel and accessories. Shop from our entire line of True Religion Mens.And latest designer True Religion Jeans here, welcome to buy.

The Windows 7 key is a

On March 11th, 2010 Visitor (not verified) says:

The Windows 7 key is a usually unique, alphanumeric code of any length required by many software programs during installation. Unique windows 7 product key help software manufacturers ensure that each copy of their software was legally purchased.buy Windows 7 | Windows 7 Home key | Windows 7 Professional key | Windows 7 Ultimate key | Windows 7 Enterprise key | Windows 7 Home Premium key

The unique Windows 7 serial key entered for an operating system or a software program is typically stored in an encrypted format in the Windows Registry, making finding one very difficult without some help. The above linked guides should help find just about any Windows 7 CD key you may be looking for.Windows 7 Home product key | Windows 7 Professional product key | Windows 7 Ultimate product key

This Windows 7 product serial number, if it exists, is the generic Windows 7 Home product key that Microsoft allowed your PC builder to use when mass producing computers. In other words, everyone's disc has the same product key. Your unique key for use when reinstalling Windows will be the one on the sticker on your computer. Windows 7 Enterprise key | Windows 7 Home Premium key

eudo watches

On March 11th, 2010 edwina (not verified) says:

Many would like to 642-062

On March 10th, 2010 Cisco (not verified) says:

Many would like to 642-062 make it to the top in the famed IT world. The top companies around the world are those who 352-001 have used the internet and other computer related automation to enhance productivity and market competence. 650-621 There are many fields into which a person can get into when speaking about information technology as a 642-611 profession. Everyone has some or the other basic knowledge of computers and internet. It is high skills that 310-202 are in demand in the industry. Many obtain high skills through their college studies. Yet find it inadequate 650-251 to obtain a well paying job.
HP0-J22
BH0-006
642-974
640-802
642-631
Companies on 312-50 the other hand are churning out newer products daily and a person who has passed out a few years HP0-S21 ago may soon feel the irrelevance of their studies. The IT environment has undergone a sea change with the old 642-067 market leaders no longer in the picture in the following decades. Aspiring IT professionals, IT managers and 650-180 even experience IT professional all ask the same question; how do we retain our relevance in the present EC0-350 scenario? Major corporations and independent bodies have come up with an answer that is Vendor specific as 646-363 well as vendor neutral certifications.

The oft assumed fact that VCP-310 certified professionals are better than others is a misnomer as experience in the 642-164 field teaches more than what a certification can. Yet for all certification hold the sway in the present job PK0-002 market. Popular certifications in networking are MCSA Microsoft certified Systems Administrator, MCSE: HP0-S20 Microsoft certifies systems Engineer, CCNA: Cisco Certified Network Associate, CCNE: Cisco certified network 642-072 Engineer, CCNP: Cisco certified network professional, Network plus from CompTIA, SCNA: sun certified network 646-046 Administrator, and CCIE: Cisco certified inter network expert. There are many other certification like CNA: 646-563 Certified Novell Administrator, Linux certifications etc.

The question that 650-175 would immediately turn up in a persons mind is which certification is better? Assuming the 650-393 quality of a certification is difficult and its worth can be discerned only in relation to your needs. However 646-656 and Cisco are the most sought after certifications as their 350-050 hardware and software dominate the 642-481 industry the world over.